


Reveal My Colour

by snowycricket



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Artist Donghyuck, Donghyuck centric, Fluff, Gen, In later chapters - Freeform, M/M, More tags to be added, ish i think, painter au, through the ages
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-08-05 02:49:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16359278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowycricket/pseuds/snowycricket
Summary: His pencils, brushes, and especially his paints are an extension of him now, but Donghyuck looks back on what, or more specifically who, leads him to this stage.Or; in which, Donghyuck finds a muse in seventeen different boys throughout his life.





	1. Age 5

**Author's Note:**

> blame all those cuteass krnb playlists on youtube for making me spawn this fic
> 
> also!! this is my first fic in the nct fandom and on ao3 so please bear w/ me if i mess something up

Donghyuck's first piece is of Park Jisung.

 

He remembers it like it was yesterday; his pudgy fingers twisting open paint caps as he gaped at the impossibly tiny boy across the nursery classroom.

The boy let his tears cling to his eyelashes as he begged his retreating parents to pick him up - they could only look at him apologetically until they were out of sight, shielded by the daycare's colourful doors. Donghyuck had clutched the dark blue paint tightly, eyes still following the new child who seemed to have resigned himself to his fate and calmed down considerably. The teacher, an adorably petite lady who couldn't be any more than 27 with never-leaving glitter stains on her forearms and small pen marks littering her cheeks, enthusiastically guided the boy around the large room, nearing the arts section (a cluster of tables dressed in disappointing protective cloth) alarmingly fast in Donghyuck's toddler mind.

As they neared, Donghyuck could study the new addition well; looking intently at the boy's fluffed black hair, his constantly scrunched nose and his curious eyes that sparked up into crescents as he made eye contact with Donghyuck. He was so impossibly cute and soft that Donghyuck found himself pausing the teacher with her introduction of the nursery, and commanding,

"He will stay with me." He patted the space next to him for effect. The teacher raised her eyebrows, clearly surprised at Donghyuck's effort to welcome someone new - he had never been the friendliest. She inwardly sighed,

"This is Jisung, Donghyuckie! He can stay with you if he wants to, and as long as you promise you won't hurt him; he's two years younger than you, Hyuckie."

 

As soon as she introduced him, the boy - Jisung - was smiling, eyes crinkling together tightly. Donghyuck _had_ to paint him. His tiny 5 year old brain didn't understand the concept of art properly, nor the idea of having a _muse_ but Jisung was already a swirl of blues in his head; bright and slightly melancholy. Donghyuck was inspired.

 

"I'm shy." Jisung burst out suddenly, despite his smiling face. He had trouble pronouncing all the letters clearly and Donghyuck couldn't hold back a miniscule giggle in reply.

"Let's paint." Donghyuck pressed on - he wanted Jisung to watch him mix all of the shades of blue he could gather and paste them onto the giant card paper he had fought Felix, one of his classmates, for. There was a heavy pause as the younger made the connection between Donghyuck and the abundance of equipment on the table. Jisung then proceeded to unclasp himself from the teacher's side before landing opposite Donghyuck on the other end of the table.

"Okay." The reply was high-pitched and seemingly reluctant, Donghyuck would've misunderstood had he not caught Jisung's eyes widening in wonder and the smile expanding to show his small teeth. The teacher ran a hand through Donghyuck's own raven locks before moving away with a coo on her lips.

 

Donghyuck and Jisung were then left staring at eachother, ignoring the screeches flying past their ears and the sounds of plastic and wood scraping and knocking together; most kids preferred to play, leaving Donghyuck alone in the art section. Jisung sniffed; the smell of plasticine constantly carried around the nursery irritated his nose.

 

"You are blue." Donghyuck stated as his focus returned to the bottles of paint, caps now all completely unscrewed and littered everywhere - the teacher would have a a heart attack over it later on in the day.

"I am blue." Jisung confirmed, small hands coming up to clutch at the indigo t-shirt he donned; it was almost an insecure action, as if the child was trying to convince himself.

"No," Donghyuck shook his head, " Well, yeah, you're wearing blue but your _colour's_ blue." To prove his point, Donghyuck gestured to the shades of blue on the craft table, from icy blue to the darkest tones of denim. Jisung only cocked his head to the right in puzzlement. Undeterred, Donghyuck finally started his soon-to-be masterpiece, using a generous dollop of the dark blue paint he had held tightly this whole time.

"Dark blue for your crying," the elder explained, "sadness is big - but your crying isn't black, it feels calm." He struggled getting his point across; he thought Jisung's tears weren't overwhelming and full of sorrow, instead they were confused and dazed, almost as if Jisung wasn't sad about being left but instead frustrated because he couldn't understand _why_ \- why he was in this new, unfamiliar building surrounded by two dozen boys and girls, all varying degrees of _loud_. Donghyuck moved on to the next bottle as he deemed the dark blue splattered in arcs over the top good enough.

"Baby blue cause you're a baby." Donghyuck once again announced as his fingers danced across the paper, messily spreading the shade. Jisung could only giggle, enthralled ny Donghyuck's actions. This was new for both of them.

 

Donghyuck had enjoyed this section ever since joining the daycare almost two years ago, at Jisung's age. However, he refused to share and show off his work, instead hunching over the table, either clutching pencils or paint, stubborn to let go at the end of each day. His addiction to art came at an early age. His parents used to spend their days worried, scared that their only child was going to become a recluse hermit by the time he started real school; it took a lot of convincing from the teacher that "Donghyuck has great social skills for his age, he's just selective with who he shows them to". Jisung was obviously different to Donghyuck in the way that the younger was genuinely timid but his tiny heart ached to interact and make a meaningful connection with others.

 

Donghyuck leaned back, admiring the palette of differing hues blending together, some messily, some naturally like the sky itself.

"Done?" Jisung squeaked out, flustered by the elder's sudden movement. By now, all ther kids had noticed the new boy and whispers had been carried throughtout the daycare, all asking why he was with Donghyuck, who could come across as scary and unapproachable when he wished.

"Wait." The toddler-turned-artist screwed his features into a thick pout before reaching over to his left, rummaging through one of the countless boxes strewn about, and grabbing a grey-blue shade reminiscent of dusk at winter before splatting it over the artwork in the center, and vigorously rubbing it in until the unique shade was like a hole swallowing the paper's middle. In Donghyuck's eyes, this was the toddler, Park Jisung.

 

Gasping, Jisung watched the elder in bewilderment, eyes questioning.

"The grey is for everything I don't know about you." was Donghyuck's answer before setting Jisung with the task of finding the teacher and bringing her over because 5 year old Donghyuck had finally made something he was proud of and maybe, just maybe he had something for show-and-tell today. For the first time.

 

Donghyuck ended up moving away six months later, but Park Jisung always remained as the bluest blue, even many years later as he gazed at the crumpled artwork in his old room while visiting his parents. That was the first time he'd really _looked_ at anyone's aura and transferred it to paper - it was extremely important to Donghyuck, who was far more sentimental and wistful than he'd admit. He's glad this memory is still alive in his mind.


	2. Age 7

“Donghyuck, your seat is over there.” The teacher helpfully supplied as Donghyuck stared at the seating plan laid out; he wasn’t sitting by any of his friends.

 

“Donghyuck?” The teacher prompted him to go, her finger pointing at the exact seat. It was a normal occurrence for Donghyuck to react slowly or ignore teachers’ words; he wasn’t a fan of blindly following rules and expressed it every time he got a chance.

 

Donghyuck thought out his argument — if he threw a tantrum he’d just be sent out of class, but if he acted reasonably maybe,  _ perhaps _ , he’d get to sit with a few of his friends, who stood at the other side of the classroom, small faces pulled into pouts and frowns.

 

“But miss-“

“Just sit down Donghyuck — you’re not going to sit with your friends, you’ll see them at break instead!” The teacher’s voice sounded strained, Donghyuck was good at testing her patience over the smallest things.

 

Huffing, Donghyuck decided to back down for now -- he was aware that his friends were going to rope him into pulling some sort of prank as revenge later on, which, Donghyuck reasoned, was a good way to get back at his teacher’s act of betrayal. If he’d been placed with his friends, none of this would be happening. He dragged himself to the seat, whining under his breath on purpose, just to see his teacher’s face scrunch further into hardly hidden frustration.

 

“-move your chair?” A voice suddenly spoke up from beside Donghyuck, startling him into sitting up instead of his signature slouch, “You’re kinda on my bag…” The voice trailed off and Donghyuck snapped his head leftwards to stare at the boy: Zhong Chenle, the new kid in Donghyuck’s Year 2 (Yeah, Donghyuck claimed he possessed all of Year 2 because he was “the best”). The new boy had never given Donghyuck any grief and he paid him no attention after the boy was introduced and sent off to sit at a table on the opposite side of the room to Donghyuck three months ago. In Donghyuck’s eyes, there was simply no reason to make new friends, he was fine with his current posse of rowdy boys he sometimes got to lead when he had a great game or prank idea -- Donghyuck’s friendship group was versatile like that, not having a set leader (which actually created more squabbles and arguments than creating happy moments, but Donghyuck knew when to turn a blind eye).

 

“Oh, yeah.” Donghyuck lifted up the side of his chair, prompting Chenle to pull the bag’s straps out quickly. The boy did, smiling widely.

“So-” Donghyuck started,

“Donghyuck, don’t talk when I’m talking please!” The teacher’s voice suddenly amplified in Donghyuck’s ears and he winced. It was a curse of Donghyuck’s to not notice when teachers started speaking, causing him to lose his break time several times per term, just because he never understood when to zip his mouth shut. His mum always ruffled his hair and said to his dad, “It’s both a curse and a blessing to be so chatty; let him off, he’s a kid.” Donghyuck always felt warmth and giddiness clog up his lungs when his mum played with the wavy locks of his hair, as she smiled down at him with so much love bursting out of her eyes Donghyuck was afraid she’d pop. Nowadays, she wasn’t around as often, her eyes constantly tired from all the work she’d picked up but her eyes would still have that glossy look of utter adoration whenever she picked Donghyuck up, or when she’d tuck him into his covers, whispering goodnights and humming soft lullabies on the days she was a little less spent. Yet, what passed at home, did not pass at school, so Donghyuck quickly got used to the scolding.

 

Once the teacher was sure Donghyuck had stopped his chatter (in his defence, Donghyuck never even got the chance to start!), she continued droning on,

“You will be doing some painting today! For PSHE, we’re doing what makes us happy so that’s what we’ll be painting. Remember to wear aprons and don’t eat the paint or you’ll end up going to the nurse like Jamie last week, okay, guys?” The teacher motioned for cheers, which caused the kids to erupt into squeals and shouts, drowning out her following instructions -- Donghyuck felt satisfaction creeping up at the teacher’s look of pure alarm.

 

“What are you gonna paint?” Donghyuck’s seat partner, Chenle, asked as he reached for the large blank pages, pulling one to himself and one to Donghyuck.

“Uh…” Donghyuck froze; what  _ should  _ he paint? Should he paint his mum with her crinkled eyes? His dad with his soft smile? His whiny little sister with her large sobs filling up the whole house, almost suffocating Donghyuck when she starts bawling? His friends, the same ones who aren’t afraid to play rough and get Donghyuck all scratched up? Donghyuck’s internal dilemma dissipated into thin air as his eyes trailed to Chenle wrestling with the paint set, small fingers scratching the plastic covering almost savagely, as Chenle’s anger grew. Donghyuck smothered a giggle -- Chenle was very funny with his comical little yelps in frustration, his eyebrows knitting together, and his little teeth grinding together.

 

“I’m going to draw my brother, Kun. He always buys me sweets on the way home.” Chenle turned to Donghyuck, “And also, can you open this?” Donghyuck nodded and was struck with the sudden realisation that Chenle had such a high pitched voice, that only went higher as he giggled at Donghyuck now struggling with the plastic palette. 

 

Once the palette had been pried open by both boys, Donghyuck watched Chenle smother his brush with black; frankly, Donghyuck was stumped and was now looking for inspiration.

“Kun has black hair.” Chenle stated, his mouth pulling upwards into a small shy grin.

That’s when it struck Donghyuck; he could paint Chenle! Chenle, who had been nothing but sweet the past 10 minutes, Chenle, who actually seemed like a fun person, Chenle, who Donghyuck knew nothing about… That was the problem. The paint palette was full of colours, none of which Donghyuck knew suited Chenle. Donghyuck didn’t know who exactly Chenle was: didn’t know his favourite colour, his favourite TV show, his favourite plushie (Donghyuck was adamant that everyone  _ must  _ have at least 1 plushie) -- he knew nothing other than the fact that Chenle had a brother and high pitched giggles. Donghyuck stared holes into his blank page and decided that he’d become Chenle’s best friend before he painted him.

  
  
  
  
  


“Donghyuck, why didn’t you do anything?” The teacher’s stern voice hardened further as she watched Donghyuck shrug. She moved to set down the paint palette once more, about to force Donghyuck to stay behind during their playtime, but Donghyuck was faster, pushing all of the equipment away from his body and running for the door, yelling out a “bye!” before slipping out the door and into the playground. The teacher could only sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This really wasn't meant to be published so late; school's just kicking my ass and my gcses and everything... god i hate. I don't really like this chapter so I'll try my best to do better in the next ones but idk chenle's just hard to write?? god knows why but depending on how inspired i am, i might update before my birthday on the 4th??? That's like in a week so maybe not,, we'll see. Let me know what you think!! I'm really hoping that my characterisation of Donghyuck is sorta effective :///

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think!! i haven't written and published something in ages so i'm a bit rusty sadly, hope it isn't noticeable hah  
> I'm on ig as @/jungwooful if anyone wants to scream w me about kim dongyoung :)


End file.
